Publications by authors named "B Oppenheim"
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on patterns of infectious disease spillover. Climate and land-use changes are predicted to increase the frequency of zoonotic spillover events, which have been the cause of most modern epidemics. Characterising historical trends in zoonotic spillover can provide insights into the expected frequency and severity of future epidemics, but historical epidemiological data remains largely fragmented and difficult to analyse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderreporting of infectious diseases is a pervasive challenge in public health that has emerged as a central issue in characterizing the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious diseases are underreported for a range of reasons, including mild or asymptomatic infections, weak public health infrastructure, and government censorship. In this study, we investigated factors associated with cross-country and cross-pathogen variation in reporting.
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- Infectious disease misinformation, particularly in low-income areas, makes controlling diseases like typhoid challenging, with debates on how to effectively counter this misinformation.
- A trial in Sierra Leone tested two interventions: one directly discussed and debunked misconceptions about typhoid, while the other only provided correct information without addressing the myths.
- Results showed both methods reduced misinformation and improved knowledge about typhoid risk, but the direct debunking approach was more effective in changing beliefs and encouraging preventive behaviors.